Graphics issue - Gervais tiles & window menus

[maboleth]

Hello,

I'm Ivan Jekic, I created all characters & artifacts that were missing in 32x32 DG tiles, several years ago, with the help of Gervais himself. I noticed the same set is being used as of today. That made me a little proud and nostalgic at the same time.

Well, after all these years I wanted to see how game progressed and note any interface changes.
Unfortunately, the 32x32 tiles are still being rendered very small by default (even with "big tiles" enabled) and window menus with "increase/decrease tile height, tile width, etc." stretching don't make any sense, not in 2009.

Is it possible to make the game to correctly display 32x32 tiles as well as to make more meaningful menu names and functions?

The last Angband variant that was using full graphics & window potential was Angband TK. But that was long time ago and the original author literally disappeared.

[Nick]

Unfortunately, the 32x32 tiles are still being rendered very small by default (even with "big tiles" enabled) and window menus with "increase/decrease tile height, tile width, etc." stretching don't make any sense, not in 2009.

Is it possible to make the game to correctly display 32x32 tiles as well as to make more meaningful menu names and functions?

There has been some work on this by Andrew Doull in Unangband, to allow the tiles to be shown larger; this has been ported to some other variants, too (but not Vanilla yet). There are also display changes in Sangband that allow larger tiles.

The last Angband variant that was using full graphics & window potential was Angband TK. But that was long time ago and the original author literally disappeared.

...and has reappeared recently with an update.

[maboleth]

There has been some work on this by Andrew Doull in Unangband, to allow the tiles to be shown larger; this has been ported to some other variants, too (but not Vanilla yet). There are also display changes in Sangband that allow larger tiles.

What every angband variant needs (at least in my opinion) is good implementation of Gervais graphics. Anyone who wants to play in ASCII can do so, but the graphical part in angband is underestimated and overlooked. That's a shame since for years we have the characters, items, surroundings, etc... just need to make it display correctly - 32x32 pixels with no stretching and pointless (dated) menu functions.

I'm glad your FAngband has very nice graphic implementation - just what vanilla needs.

...and has reappeared recently with an update.

Thanks! I'm very glad he's well and still in Angband waters. I've sent several emails to Ruehlman (long time ago), asking what happened to Tim, but he didn't know either. It's a real surprise. I hope he'll update his TK versions to include the latest 3.1.1.

[Ghen]

I tried to do a little research (besides actually downloading it) but what do the TK versions mean compared to their normal counterpart?

[maboleth]

I tried to do a little research (besides actually downloading it) but what do the TK versions mean compared to their normal counterpart?

TK versions take the advantage of using, ahem - Windows (something that regular Angband ver. doesn't really support) and graphic tiles (there's also a pseudo 3D mode - similar to Knight Lore, Gunfright, etc. on ZX Spectrum).
Besides main window where the game takes place, you also have other windows like map, equipment, messages, etc.
In my opinion, TK is what Angband for Windows should have been.

[d_m]

TK versions take the advantage of using, ahem - Windows (something that regular Angband ver. doesn't really support) and graphic tiles (there's also a pseudo 3D mode - similar to Knight Lore, Gunfright, etc. on ZX Spectrum).
Besides main window where the game takes place, you also have other windows like map, equipment, messages, etc.
In my opinion, TK is what Angband for Windows should have been.

While I do love the GCU port best, I think that almost all the other ports support everything you mention, except the pseudo 3D mode. Have you tried "-mx11 -- -n 4" for instance, or the SDL or GTK ports?

[Nick]

While I do love the GCU port best, I think that almost all the other ports support everything you mention, except the pseudo 3D mode. Have you tried "-mx11 -- -n 4" for instance, or the SDL or GTK ports?

AngbandTK has at least three major features that these don't have:

1. Graphics that can be scaled independent of font size;
2. Full mouse controllability and
3. Use of subwindows for input.

Un and FA have a partial version of 1; FA technically has 2 (although it's not as simple), nothing else has 3.